Chapter 11: Empire Ants
Oh joys are us the sun has come again to hold you
Sailing out the doldrums of the week
The polyphonic prayer is here it's all around you
It's all around you out here
Empire Ants was not a happy song, though it tried valiantly to be one. The mood was like a roller coaster, picking you up and then dropping you, over and over. Its lyrics swerved in and out of meaning, in and out of sense. Yet 2D could tell just by reading them that Murdoc had spent countless hours fine-tuning them, choosing his words carefully.
After reading the song through, 2D felt a peculiar feeling wash over him. He didn't want it to end, so he read it again. It was like the song was a really good book, as Noodle would say.
Just like that, the memory came to him. Dug up from the rusty, banged-up hard drive of his mind, held up to the light like a gemstone.
It's a cold day in December, even in Kong Studios. Or, as some would argue, especially in Kong Studios.
Noodle and 2D were having a rare, quiet moment. Murdoc had gone into town to get wasted beyond recognition, and Russel had gone with him to make sure he didn't get himself killed.
The two had gathered in the only room of the entire warehouse that provided any semblance of warmth: the basement. Only because it was so close to the gates of Hell, 2D presumed.
Noodle was curled up on one of the massive leather chairs they'd dragged in, reading a thin paperback book titled "A Wrinkle in Time" by someone named Madeleine L'e... L'erng... Whatever. This 'Madeleine' had a funny last name.
2D normally didn't like to disturb her when she was reading, as it usually earned him an annoyed glare. This time, for some reason, he couldn't hold back a question that had been eating at him.
"Why do you read so much, Noodle?" he asked, his voice echoing off the walls. He hardly ever read books (and when he did, they had to have pictures or he deemed them useless), and it was strange how Noodle seemed to revere them with absolute adoration.
The girl looked up from her book as if she'd just remembered he was there with her. She asked him to repeat the question, and he patiently obeyed. When he asked it again, a slight smile grew on the girl's pretty face, and she gently closed the book.
"I read because it allows me to experience what the characters are going through. It takes me to, uh, a faraway place."
"So, like, an escape?"
"Yes, almost," she continued. Noodle's heavy accent made it hard for him to understand her sometimes, so he leaned in. "But it is not always peaceful. For example, sometimes I am taken to dungeons, or prison cells, or dangerous forests with the characters. So, in some ways, it is not, uh, entirely for the escape."
"Why would you wanna go to dungeons and prison cells and dangerous forests if you can just stay here?" 2D asked.
"For the adventure," said Noodle with her signature grin.
"That doesn't seem healthy," said 2D.
Noodle looked down fondly at the book in her lap.
"It is hard to explain," said Noodle, "To someone who does not read very often. But I will try." She took a breath and thought for a moment. After a short while her face brightened and she turned to him. "You can always tell if a book is well-written, because you fall in love with the characters. You start to think of them as real people. So, when you finish the book, and the time comes where you have to wave goodbye to all your new friends, it is a very sad thing. But also, I find, very beautiful."
She looked up at 2D.
"That is why I read, Toochi," she said, "To fall in love with the characters, and, eventually, to say goodbye."
2D's hands gripped the music sheets tightly, trembling. But I don't want to say goodbye. Not to you, not to the song, not to anyone.
"2D? Are you ready?"
2D looked up to see Yukimi standing over him, waiting patiently for his answer.
"Oh," he muttered, "Sure..."
2D glanced around for Murdoc, and spotted him right away. The bassist was sitting on his throne of a chair (the giant comfy one), one leg draped over the arm and one lazily dragging along the floor. In his lap sat an instrument 2D hadn't seen in years. "El Diablo". Murdoc's prized bass. Won in a deal between himself and Lucifer.
Looking at it made 2D a bit nervous. It always had, even before he knew what Murdoc had done to get it. The thing seemed alive, watching him with unseen eyes, judging him and all his imperfections.
Still, it was a musical instrument and it made the most wicked sounds 2D had ever heard a bass make. It was essential to their quality of music.
"What's that for?" asked 2D. Only when Murdoc's eyes flashed a glare at him did he remember their little tryst earlier this morning in the bathroom... 2D's cheeks heated up, and all the worry flooded back into 2D's mind.
"'Wot's dat for?'," Murdoc mocked him, squealing in a high-pitched voice. After a scoff, he returned to his normal voice. "What the hell do you think, moron? It's an instrument. You play it when you want music to come out. Or did you forget that when Richard Simmons fucked your arse?"
"I only meant," 2D spoke slowly, holding back a glare. "Why do you have it out? En't we recording Empire Ants?"
"We are," said Murdoc, plucking a few low, lazy notes. "But I figured we could use the practice."
2D glanced over to Yukimi, who met his eyes and shrugged. 2D sighed, deciding not to waste energy arguing.
"Noodle!" Murdoc screamed out of nowhere, making both singers jump at least five feet into the air. "Get your metallic arse in here!"
Not a minute later, the robot arrived at the Studio. Slung around her shoulders was yet another instrument 2D hadn't seen in years. A yellow Fender Telecaster.
Noodle's yellow Fender Telecaster.
Polished to a shine.
2D ground his teeth together, staring between the instrument and the false replica of the girl who used to own it. Still did own it. How dare that machine even think about touching Noodle's guitar?!
"Ah, there you are!" Murdoc cried, sweeping his arm in a long, welcoming arc. "Come over here, love. Queue Track Seven. It's in there, right?"
The Cyborg cocked her head to the side and gave a startling little twitch, a blue spark flying from her neck before she righted herself. Then, she opened her mouth.
And spoke.
"Track: Zero Seven. Title: Empire Ants. Data: confirmed."
The one thing Murdoc seemed to leave out in his shameless copy of Noodle was the girl's voice. This Cyborg may look like Noodle, but she sounded like a computer. Heartless, emotionless. 2D held onto it like a vice. Without her voice, this robot replica was nothing.
"Brilliant," said Murdoc, "Let's see how she sounds, shall we?"
Cyborg closed the Studio doors, plugging in Noodle's guitar. Yukimi started humming a few warm-up vocals, her beautiful voice filling the room. Murdoc made sure his bass was tuned, then nodded to Cyborg. The robot nodded once, snapping to attention at Murdoc's slightest command. She walked over to the controls and tapped a few buttons expertly. Then, as she walked back to her spot, she took hold of the guitar and began to play, not missing a single chord.
Thankfully, she didn't play like Noodle either. When Noodle played her guitar, particularly that Fender Telecaster, she was almost always smiling. If not, she was concentrated, staring down at her fingers as they glided over the strings, her tongue sticking out of her mouth. Up until now, 2D had always associated that yellow guitar with happiness and a passion for music. A desire to become better, to do your best in doing what you love. Now, that image was being ruined by Cyborg's emotionless perfection.
"Oh joys are us, the sun has come again to hold you," 2D sang sorrowfully, closing his eyes. "Sailing out the doldrums of the week..."
When his first verse was done, a slight pause in his vocals, he opened his eyes. Murdoc sat directly before him, his own eyes closed as well. His hands rested on El Diablo, waiting for his bass part to come in sometime in the second verse. 2D noticed the slight upward curl at the corner of his mouth, the twitching eyebrows, and somehow knew what they meant.
You may be an annoying ponce, 2D, but hell if that voice isn't magic.
"And if the whole world is crashing down on you," 2D continued, looking down at his feet to hide the tiny smiling threatening to show on his face. "Fall through space out of mind with me..."
His thoughts didn't stay optimistic for long. A single glance at Cyborg's bored face reminded him of everything that was wrong with this scene. Russel should be here, tapping delicately at his cymbals to the music. Noodle should be here, smiling down at her fingers as she played her Fender Telecaster. Both had been replaced by machines.
"Where the emptiness we leave behind, on warm air rising," sang 2D, hands shaking by his sides. "Blows all the shadows far away..."
2D waved his fingers, frowning down at them as if they, too, were blowing away from the emptiness.
"The falling of the whole empire is here to hold you," he continued, letting his voice carry through the room as he sang Murdoc's words true, "Rolling out and haunted till it sleeps..."
Just then, the song picked up, and once again 2D was moved by the fullness of it all. How they'd managed to retain so much soul in their music 2D did not know. Even removed from their home, minus two members, adding a couple of replacements, their music still seemed to be alive.
Yukimi started her piece, and 2D couldn't help but dance. Just his feet tapping along to the sudden booming bass, fingers snapping to the beat of the drums. He glanced up at Murdoc and couldn't help a smile. Right then, the bassist was Mona Lisa, Persistence of Memory, and Starry Night all rolled into one. This image of him, playing his bass with his eyes closed, his mouth pulled into a rare smile, his head doing that shaking thing 2D loved. As if he weren't able to process the pure soul in this music and was saying: no, it's impossible, it's impossible...
This should be painted, framed, and displayed for all to see and wonder at until the end of time.
"Soon, like a wave," sang Yukimi, her voice resonating deep within 2D's eardrums, planting a garden in his mind. "Empires will fall... And closing in on you... Not building a wall."
Suddenly, she took 2D's hand and danced, her body moving fluidly to the music. 2D followed, or tried to. His long, lanky limbs weren't exactly built to dance, but Yukimi helped him. She moved in a way that, when 2D tried, wouldn't make him knock down everything around him. He watched her intently, then began to mimic her moves. His hips swayed, his feet stepping lightly as he moved back and forth.
Pretty soon they were spinning and twirling each other around the room, abandoning all thoughts of how silly it might look. They were too lost in each other to care.
When the song ended, they collapsed onto the carpet, high with childish giddiness. Panting, they lay there smiling. Every time they tried to look at each other, they burst into laughter, their sides burning.
No, 2D thought, it can't be bad to have a friend.
"Having fun, are we?"
2D looked up at Murdoc, the smile on his lips dying a slow, agonizing death. The bassist looked positively furious. He gripped the neck of El Diablo as one grips a dead turkey they'd just killed for dinner. 2D gulped, thankful it wasn't his neck that was trapped in that angry fist.
"W-we were just-" 2D began, but surprisingly, Yukimi cut him off.
"Yeah, we were having fun," she said, "Is that a problem?"
Murdoc pulled his mouth into a snarl and shot a glare at the girl. Then, he shifted it to 2D. Unprepared for a look of such anger, 2D shrunk back, turning his face away. Yukimi's games didn't seem to be working...
2D's gaze ended up on one of the giant windows of the Studio, overlooking the ocean. He spotted it right away. 'It' was a dark silhouette looming on the horizon, the sunset burning behind it.
"Is that a ship?" 2D asked, forgetting for a moment about Murdoc and Yukimi and her games.
Murdoc spun around and made a mad dash for the window. Even the Cyborg perked up, running to his side. Yukimi and 2D exchanged a glance. Why were they so tense?
"What flag are they flying?" Murdoc asked the Cyborg. "Can you see it?"
"Data: confirmed," she said, "Status: friendlies. Destination: Plastic Beach. Arrival time: Nineteen hundred thirty-two."
Murdoc straightened up, his expression shifting from one of worry to one of confusion.
"Did you say... they're not our enemies?"
"Data: confirmed," Cyborg responded, turning to him. "Orders, sir?"
"None," said Murdoc, "I'll handle this myself."
He turned away from the window and strode with purpose into the Study. He didn't even give Yukimi and 2D a second glance. Something was wrong.
2D picked himself up off the carpet and, after helping Yukimi up, they followed Murdoc into the other room. The bassist was at his desk, leaning over a small brown radio with a red button.
"What's-" 2D began, but Murdoc hushed him.
"This is Murdoc Faust Niccals, owner of Plastic Beach, 48° 52′ 36″ S, 123° 23′ 36″ W," he said, "Who the hell is this?"
Static crackled over the radio. Murdoc stared down at the machine as if he could force an answer out of it with sheer will. The seconds ticked by, and 2D and Yukimi exchanged a worried glance.
Then, the crackling grew louder. Murdoc perked up and reached to tune the frequency until a clear, eerie laughter howled from the speaker. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion, and Yukimi took a nervous step back, but 2D knew this laugh.
Remembered it.
2D quickly walked over to the radio and, just as the horrifying laughter died, pressed the button that allowed him to speak. He softly sang two words that he knew were meant to follow that laughter.
"Feel good."
Murdoc turned his head, staring at 2D with an unreadable expression.
"Yeah, 2D my man!" cried Maseo, "How you been, brotha?"
De La Soul. He hadn't heard from them since Demon Days. Way back around 2005. And now he was talking to them over a radio in the middle of nowhere.
"I'm alright," 2D smiled. And he was. Sort of.
"Yeah, yeah," said Murdoc, swatting 2D's hand away from the radio, pressing the button himself. "We can frolic through the fields of remembering later. We've got more important things to deal with. Like why you have such a huge ship. This place isn't big enough to dock that thing, you know."
"Don't worry 'bout that, Murdoc," said Posdnuos, another member of the trio. "We got lifeboats."
"Shit ton of 'em!" added Maseo. "Like- fuck, what was it? Thirty or somethin'?"
"I thought it was twenty-three?" mumbled Dave.
"Naw, man, I'm sure it was thirty," said Maseo, "Why the fuck would we have twenty-three lifeboats? What kinda random number is that?"
"Someone want to tell me why the hell you have so many lifeboats?" Murdoc growled, his limited patience dwindling fast. "And why your ship's so damn big?"
"Oh, well," Posdnuos explained, "We figured your schedule was too complicated. With all of us coming and going at different times. It's not that easy to find the end of the world, y'know? So we got to thinkin', what if we just brought everyone, all at once? We could all get to know each other, make it like a... like an assorted mix, know what I'm sayin?"
"E-everyone?" At first it was a whisper. Then, Murdoc's eyes widened as he began to process exactly what he was hearing. He ground his sharp teeth together and curled his hand into a fist. He slammed it back down on the button and shouted. "Everyone?!"
"Yeah, man," Posdnuos answered. The smile in his voice was audible. "Everyone."
A/N: Some of the lyrics for Empire Ants are debatable, but I got them straight from G-U (The Unofficial Gorillaz forum), who definitely do their research. I'd sooner believe what they say than some dodgy lyric site.
Anyways, yes, the rest of the featureds are here. All at once. I wonder how Murdoc's going to organize all this... ;)
